Diane Pettipas

My husband played guitar for 10 or so years without "schooling" himself on theory. He understood the concepts and fundamentals but never got into the details and the why's. In the past 6 or so years he's done much study and it has connected SO many dots for him and expanded the neck and frets into things he feels stupid for not having seen before - he saw the paterns, but now he sees the designs in the patterns and has come up with his own teaching method. We know some people whom my husband is recording. At first they said they don't need to know theory, it put them in a box so they can't explore their art. They were 2 songwriters, a guitarist ho wrote the music and a vocalist who wrote the lyrics. Well, as the lyrics were getting written she'd direct the guitarist to go up with her at certain parts. Well this led to songs with 8-10 chord changes, no even measures - even the verses had different measures from the other verses - and left the vocals "stuck" singin everything the same way every time. The guitarists timing was off because every chord change had to corrispond with the vocals, and she'd even forget the songs because of the amount of chord changes. You couldn't tell the verse from the chorus because they were already using EVERY note in the scale twice! Our drummer (who has over 30 years experience) came in as a studio drummer began to chart out the songs, when he finally finished he was like...."ummm...okay, this is gonna be fun". Since then we've helped them rework the songs starting with the guitarist, taking out unecessary notes, simplifying and diversifying the strum patterns, adding breaks, etc. Then the singer had to figure out how to sing them. She didn't have to change much and found she had MUCH more freedom. Theory saved the day, and they are glad to be out of the box they HAD been in before they realized NOT knowing theory was the constraint. Even as a vocalist I want to know theory, I want to know where my 3rds, 5ths and such are and what scale I should be singing in for a particular song so I can compliment the music and become part of it - not my vocals over some sounds. I AM another instrument and it is just as important for me as any other musician.

My husband has entered the Guitar Center Blues Master's competition with Joe Bonamassa. He has been playing for over 20 years and is extremely talented. The contest was to pick one of 10 backing tracks and play along to it utilizing the song "fingerprint" it says right on the download page not to just solo over the whole track - which most of the entries have done. My husband took the most dynamic and complicated song and essentially rewrote it. Round one is based solely on popularity - not talent, and since we don't know many people this could be his downfall. You get points for the number of views and shares you get from your contest page. If he can stay in the top 100 from now until April 25th then he progresses to round 2 where judges pick the top 10. Then they are flown to LA to perform and Joe Bonamassa picks the winner. Even if he makes it to the top 10 he gets tons of great gear, if he wins he gets $10k, gear and a mentoring session with Joe Bonamassa and producing great Kevin Shirley AND he gets to open for Joe Bonamassa in December as well as an endorsement from Earnie Ball. My husband has always utilized his talent to provide for his family. He has worked so hard to become one of the greatest musicians I have ever heard. He's currently in the top 50, but has run out of places to post his link so others are catching up fast. Please watch his video and share it with your friends. http://bluesmasters.yoov.io/channels/G+Pettipas Thank You!

Thanks to youtube we don't all have to get accepted by, pay tuition to OR attend Berklee School of Music to benefit from great instructors like Pat Pattison. A mentor to some of the greatest songwriters of our time - John Mayer to name one. I have learned so much from his videos and I hope you all do too! http://www.youtube.c...ery=PatPattison